It's that long skinny one next to the hump in the middle...

This one goes out to that idiot who refused to move around the double-trailer delivery truck driving at 5 mph in a business park with its hazard blinkers on: STEP ON IT! The lane is wide enough to fit twelve of your tiny little '87 Toyota Corolla side by side, so go around the giant sloth next time instead of holding up the rest of us because we don't want to jump the gun and get side-swiped by you when you suddenly grow a pair just as we're passing you.

And yes, that golden blur flying impatiently past you was my 1986 Nissan 300ZX.

And this one is for Palin:

Palin: "Pray... that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

I'm sorry, what?! God the almighty, the alpha, the omega, the sum of all things needs your prayers to get the creative juices to come up with a plan, otherwise he just throws a dart at a giant whiteboard or asks St. Peter to refer to the Magic 8-Ball? I don't understand how someone can believe in God, believe in the "almighty", and then say something that implies that that God is not all-encompassing. I don't get it. *Sigh*...

That being said, I did like her line, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities." Pure genius!

November will be very interesting...

Culture clash and the beautiful aftermath...

Wow I'm beat. A three-day weekend and I still need to go to bed early to catch up!

Part of that I get to blame on my wedded family. My rents-in-law came to visit and we all stayed at my wife's aunt's place where we ate too much, slept too little, and had fun to the point of exhaustion. I love my in-laws, but it takes a significant investment in caffeine to keep up with them. Part of this is that the family is separated by 400 miles. 

The other part is culture. I'll explain.

My Angel's family is from the middle east. Ethnically they are Persian (having originated from Iran); nationally they are American. Whereas most people would think these cultures contradictory, they do in fact tend to multiply certain aspects of each other when they line up.

For example: Americans like to eat. Persians have some of the most amazing cuisine, ever, plus they are used to cooking for an empire (a little "enough to feed an army" joke there - sorry, I'm tired). Multiply these together and you have things like "dinner" and "breakfast" turning into two-hour long feasts filled with an abundance of food, flying forks, flailing limbs and more simultaneous voices than a Catholic Choir. And the food is so good - because, thank GOD, I married into a family of excellent traditional Persian cooks - that just when you think that another bite will result in critical injury, you realize that there is something else on the table that you haven't tried yet or some combination of flavors that has yet to be discovered by your bland, hamburger and hot dog taste buds! And the leftovers? My father-in-law will do everything short of cramming them manually down my gullet to make sure that I have "gotten enough to eat". They call this "taroufing"; where they will insist until the sun rises, politely and like a good host mind you,  that you are lying through your saffron-stained teeth when you say that any more food and they will have to roll you away from the table with a bulldozer.

Another example: Americans love to talk. Persians love to talk. As I mentioned before, this usually results in a cacophony of conversations that stockbrokers on Wall Street couldn't contend with. The most impacted part of conversation though are the goodbyes. Persians are the only culture I know that can say "goodbye" and start a new conversation in one breath - it's like a Jedi mind trick or something; no gap, it just slips right in there. Like a ninja. People think I'm joking when I say I have to start the farewells at least a half hour before I leave; the truth is, sometimes that's underestimating it!

Now I am blessed in that virtually all of the of worst aspects of the stereotypical Southern California Persian culture is not found in my wedded family. I have found the best slices of traditional Persian culture in my in-laws and my wife. Dedication, loyalty, family, support, and spirituality (not to be confused with the Islamic religious institution; I'll explain my beliefs another time). Gotta love it!

That and the food is DAMN GOOD!

Did I mention that I like the food?

Food...